U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,885 discloses a locking mechanism for a portable tripod of a “Q-Pad” which has a casing assembly jointly assembled by a lower casing and an upper casing. At least three legs are rotatably attached to the casing assembly. The casing assembly further includes a retaining cut out. A supporting body defines a supporting surface for supporting a camera which is pivoted at the cutout of the casing assembly. The casing assembly further includes a locking mechanism wherein the supporting body can be held at a desired angle with respect to the casing assembly when the locking mechanism is held in a locked position.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,290,740 discloses a portable tripod and universal mounting assembly for an object to act as a stand for a device. The mounting assembly includes a body having a support surface, front face and an opposed mounting surface configured to mount to the support stand. The body further defines an elongated slot extending along and into the receiving socket from the support surface. The mounting assembly further includes a resilient retaining arm cantilever deposed in the receiving socket. The retaining arm includes a contact portion movable between a release position and a locked position . . . in column 3 around line 63 “the stand assembly includes a portable stand device and a universal mounting assembly for removably securing the camera phone or object to the portable stand device via a mounting button.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,480,429 discloses a vertical fore grip with bipod, which includes an ergonomic fore grip/gun handle with a concealable and collapsible bipod. One version can have a tubular recess consisting of a first cylindrical housing encompassing the bipod legs when concealed and a sliding piston that deploys the legs and a second cylindrical cutout housing a release mechanism and a void space for other accessories . . . the grip proportion has an outer surface with a flat surface on sides of the grip to provide a more stable grip, assist in orientating a mounted weapon and support pressure pads for lights.
US 2006/0087845 discloses a knife structure which has a main body and at least a foldable tool on one side thereof and a media player mounted on the other side, wherein the media player has a plurality of function keys, microphone, camera lens, a speaker, a storage device and an output/input device. The knife structure provides the knife tools and can be used as an entertaining object to listen to digital music, take photographs and film, or make audio recording.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,592 discloses a camera support for mounting a camera having a threaded opening and an external wall. The support has a shaft and a second end and a longitudinal axis there between. Coarse self tapping anchor threads are disposed on the first end of the shaft for threadingly engaging a support structure. Machine type support threads are disposed on the second end of the shaft for threadingly engaging the threaded opening of the camera. A handle extends transversely to the axis of the shaft for manually rotating anchor threads into the support structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,908 discloses a camera support apparatus where a camera is supported in a position by providing a support screw for engagement with the usual threaded opening of the camera base, in association with a sharply pointed member, such as a knife blade, which is inserted into earth, snow, ice, wood or other supporting material pierceable by the pointed member. The camera support member has the support screw on one end attached to the tang of the knife blade by a clevis allowing pivotable movement of the camera to a desired angular position relative to the supporting surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,329 discloses a light source holder for maintaining a flashlight or other instrument in a desired location. The holder has an interface unit which is secured to a gripping device such as a vice grip or pliers. A connector for the instrumentality also is provided as part of the combination [which] connector is attachable to the interface unit.
Add a vice grip connection for attaching onto rigid vertical locations. For example the multi-tool which has the stand component and the device holding component, in combination with vice grip pliers or other type of gripping mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,667 discloses a pocket tool, particularly a pocket knife or plate like tool card, which has a housing, at least one receiving area, and at least two functional components movable from a storage position within this receiving area into a working position outside of the receiving area. The first functional component is designed as a tool, particularly a pair of scissors or a knife. The second functional component has a support casing and is equipped with a recordable and readable non-volatile memory, as well as an interface. A releaseable locking device and a longitudinal guide are pivot bearing and are arranged around the support casing of the second functional component and the housing.